The year is 1782. As the Revolutionary War drags on, a young woman
named Deborah Samson sits restlessly doing piecework in a rural
Massachusetts tavern, weaving and dreaming of a better life. Her
options are slim; a former indentured servant, she’s not only poor and
female but also “masterless”—unmarried and not in service to a family.
When a recruiter for the Continental Army comes to town, Samson sees
her chance. She dons a man’s clothes and enlists.

Lexi Adams-Woolf '00

Read Q&A here with Alex Meyers on how he fictionalized his ancestor Deborah Samson.

Revolutionary, the spellbinding debut
novel by Alex Myers ’03 AM, brings to life the true story of his
ancestor, Deborah Samson (later, Gannett), who served for more than a
year as one of the elite “lights,” or Light Infantry, of the 4th
Massachusetts Regiment, which was headquartered at West Point. Taking
the name of her brother Robert Shurtliff, who had died in childhood,
Samson earned a reputation as a brave and dedicated soldier. She lived
side-by-side with other soldiers, killed several men, and was injured
in battle without her gender ever being discovered.

Woven with authentic period detail and language, Revolutionary
is a page-turner. What propels the narrative forward is not just the
battle scenes and the moments when Robert fears he may be revealed;
equally compelling is its story of self-discovery and, eventually,
love. Sometimes the character is pulled toward a soldier’s life, other
times toward tenderness and motherhood.

Myers is playful with his pronouns, shifting back and forth between
“he” and “she” and “Deborah” and “Robert” as the character’s identity
shifts. What might have seemed an awkward sleight of hand instead
reveals a complex person coming to self-awareness. “I am divided, apart
from myself in so many ways,” Robert writes from West Point to a
childhood friend. “I wish I could … float between these selves and keep
them whole.”

Myers is transgender, and it’s tempting to attribute the character’s
authenticity to the author’s experience living as both a woman and a
man. But what makes Revolutionary much more than “a transgender book”
is that Deborah’s journey is one that all of us make, as we learn our
limits, follow our dreams, and risk everything to be who we are.